To the editor:

Have you ever wondered why novelists and screenwriters use Kansas citizens when they want to imply that the character is backward and simple? Cousin Eddie in “National Lampoon’s Christmas Vacation” is a classic example. As a Kansas resident, I have resented these insults, but after we elected Sam Brownback, I began to accept the fact that we deserve this characterization.

I do not believe I can remember one incident when Sam voted for a bill that supported the working poor or middle class, and I cannot remember one incident when he did not vote FOR the top 3 percent of our wealthiest citizens. So why did Kansans vote for Sam? Is there any hope for those of us who want to pull Kansas out of the dark ages and demonstrate that we are not backward and simple?

And then it dawned on me that being exposed to four years of Sam’s primitive policies just might force all of us, Republicans and Democrats, to redefine what is and what is not conservative. When I think of constructive conservatives, I think of Bob Dole, Nancy Kassebaum and Ike Eisenhower. Sam and his tea party appointees will force all us to look at what happens to a state when the middle class is destroyed. Maybe the young thinking people in this state, who in the past have left the state in droves, will have the courage to stay home and say enough is enough. We can only hope.